Hilton Falls Hike

On  Saturday I decided to head out to Hilton Falls conservation area to try and catch the fall colours. It was a lovely day. Warm and sunny with blue skies.

As usual, the traffic was terrible. Normally I have to deal with it during the week when I make deliveries. But, on the weekend too? Even though the weather was great someone decided to get in an accident on the 401 westbound at Mavis Road closing all but one lane.

Before reaching that point I hopped on the 403 and took it west to Erin Mills. After getting off there I headed back up to the 401 and resumed my journey. Exiting the 401 at Highway 25 in Milton, I arrived at the park around 11:00 a.m.. Not too bad all things considered.

After paying my $6.75 to get in, I got a map, parked and headed out to the trails. My main objective was to get a shot of the fall colours behind the Hilton Falls Reservoir. One of my Facebook friends, Steve, had posted a picture from there and I thought it looked nice.

The reservoir was encircled by the Red Oak Trail. Easy enough, I thought, I'll just take the trail around it and get some great shots. Of course, things weren't so straightforward.

My first view of the reservoir was along one of the park roads. As I walked along it I noticed the reservoir was set deep in a pit surrounded by large rocks. As I looked around the circumference I didn't see any access points where you could go down and take a shot like the one my friend took.

I decided to take the Red Oak Trail anyway. After doubling back along the park road, I headed into the forested area. I was going to go clockwise along the trail. Part way through I noticed a side trail that went a bit closer to the reservoir, so I took it hoping it would leaded me to some sort of hidden path down.

By day's end I pretty much ended up bushwhacking my way through dense foliage and up and down steep, rocky embankments trying to get that perfect shot. It was insane. It took so much effort to get through it.

The day wasn't all crazy though. I did do a normal hike along another trail there. This one was called the Hilton Falls Trail and it took you to, of all things, Hilton Falls.

I have to say, the falls were a bit disappointing. It was probably due to the fact it was autumn and the creek leading to it was barely a trickle. So it was more like a dripping faucet than anything else.

The foliage was so-so. The leaves that had turned were mostly yellow. Not too much orange or red unfortunately. I'll probably try again next weekend. Hopefully I'll have more success then.